


Exhausted

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 06:53:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17219039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: Jack wants to make a break for it.





	Exhausted

Each morning when Sarah woke up the first thing she did was part the curtains beside her bed, and look out onto the new day. She liked to believe that this would help her to make the most of it, but lately it had only been letting her see the weather. This morning it was grey, damp, and discouraging again, with icy air that smelled of steam and sour laundry. Sarah was about to close the window and get dressed for work, when she looked down and noticed a familiar slouched over form on the fire escape. 

“Jack.” Without thinking, Sarah climbed out the window to sit next to the boy, just as she had back when they were still children, and this was a common occurrence. At seventeen, Jack had been a tall and commanding physical presence, as far as gangly adolescents went. The years had made him broader about the shoulders, added another couple of inches to his height, and (if David was to be believed) changed his youthful hopes into a frightening sort of desperation. He couldn’t curl up out by the window and make himself as small as he used to be able to. Instead his position was precarious, as though he might shift a little in his sleep and fall all the way to the ground below. 

“What are you doing here?” Sarah chided when Jack lifted up his head to look at her. "It’s freezing.“ She didn’t want to sound like her mother, but it was true. Walking around without fifteen layers of clothing on a winter day was one thing, and she’d be caught dead before she started to nag people about that, but sleeping outside on a morning when one could see their breath cloud the air was another matter entirely. 

Jack shrugged. He made a face like Sarah had just asked an annoying question. The only reason Sarah could just about forgive him for rolling his eyes at her was the smell of whisky that clung to his clothes. 

"Do you need breakfast?” Sarah asked. Maybe she could sober Jack up with rolls and coffee, and then send him home. 

“I’m alright. Just tired.” 

“You have a bed,” she reminded him. Sarah was one of the few people who had the privilege of knowing exactly who Jack had a bed with. David had to be worried sick, not that he was exactly kind and approving when Jack drank, or stepped out of line in any way for that matter.

Jack was staring out towards the spot where the sun would be, if it had bothered to rise properly. "Yeah,“ he said. "Well maybe I’m done with all that. Nothing against your brother, but I’m finished with this city, and he ain’t gonna budge.” 

Sarah’s mind filled with scenarios of things that could’ve happened to make Jack snap— fights at work, fights with David, fall outs between he called friends. But none of it was true, and Sarah knew it. This had been building for a while now. 

“You can’t just get up and go,” Sarah told him. "A lot of people will miss you.“ 

Jack laughed, shortly and bitterly. "A lot of people will be pissed off at me, you mean. You’re the only one who’ll miss me. Dave’ll just be mad, and maybe it’s better that way. Maybe it’s better.” 

“Well, if your goal is to make David mad…” 

“If he’s mad enough, he’ll know I wasn’t any good for him in the first place, and he’ll… Jesus, I don’t know Sarah, he’ll stop being dumb and go get a wife and be the president of the United States or something.” 

“Or he’ll forget about you, and go find some other man to live with.” Sarah didn’t think that David would, to be honest, but Jack had been afraid of getting too close to David and holding him back just bout as long as they’d all known each other. Jack thought he’d singlehandedly made a deviant out if David, and that simply wasn’t true. Jack looked dumbstruck now, so Sarah decided to drive the knife in a little further, if only to maker him realize how stupid he was being. "David likes the unwashed, heartbreaking type. The kind who who talk all the time about running away, and then _do_ on some evenings, only to show up here.“ 

"Yeah,” Jack scratched his head. “You calling me unwashed?”

“I’m saying you know where your family is, Jack,” Sarah took his hand. "I’ll talk to David, and if he’s as stubborn as I think he might be, then maybe you will have to leave him behind to get where you want, but not in the middle of a shouting match, and not suddenly and without warning. Maybe you’re right, and you’ve got to go, but if you don’t burn your bridges, you’ll always be able to come back. Think about it.“ 

"Actually,” Jack let Sarah pull him into a standing position, and inwards towards the window, “I was thinking about asking you to come along with me. Maybe we messed up all those years ago.”

Sarah let go of Jack’s hand. He shot her what was probably meant to be a charming smile, and she shot him a glare in return. "Actually, I wasn’t thinking about pushing you down those stairs,“ Sarah said, "but I am now.” 

It was with a silent prayer that Jack was too drunk to know that he was talking about that Sarah helped him into the house. This confirmation came in the way that Jack stumbled into her room, like a newborn horse who was just learning how to walk. She made him lie down and go to sleep, and told herself that Jack was just trying to think of every possible way to hurt and alienate her brother, to fulfill whatever twisted self-fulfilling prophecy for their relationship that he’d built up in his mind. Sarah didn’t envy David at all, even though if things had been different and she and Jack had ended up together, she would have gone to Santa Fe with him in an instant. 

Jack was wrong and confused about a lot of things, but New York absolutely _was_ exhausting, and that was the unimproved truth.


End file.
